Samsung pull out of Europe

Following Sony's lead in February 2014, when it announced the sell- off of its Vaio brand and complete withdrawal from the PC business altogether, the next major player to follow suit was Samsung.

Six months after Sony's announcement, Samsung announced that it was ceasing laptop sales across Europe. The South Korean company's move raised a few eyebrows at the time as it included its popular Chromebook in this retreat, and Samsung's Chromebook had previously been one of the bestselling Chromebooks on the market.

At the time, Samsung suggested that the move might only be temporary. A company statement explained that the decision was specific to the conditions of the European market at the time and that it didn’t necessarily reflect the market conditions of other global regions.

What it did show was that manufacturers need to adapt swiftly to the needs and demands of the market and Samsung made it clear that it wouldn't rule out similar moves in other regions of the globe.

Two years on, this continual monitoring of market conditions and adjusting of strategy to adapt to meet the needs of emerging and growing markets is more crucial than ever for manufacturers to maintain competitiveness.

Samsung's smart move

With the benefit of hindsight, Samsung's decision to withdraw from the laptop market looks to have been a smart move. In 2014, Samsung did not feature in the top 5 of PC sellers globally and competitors such as Lenovo were making big gains - at Samsung's expense. Lenovo saw a 17% rise in sales of its notebook in just one quarter. At the same time, Samsung's old adversary, Apple, were posting 13% rises on the strength of the demand for the Macbook Air.

Samsung were evolving at the time to focus more on the tablet market. Based on consumer reviews it appeared that this was where Samsung's brand strength was. Samsung clearly had to do something as the company was facing increasing pressure in the smartphone market too.  At the lower end of the market in India and China, sales were being overtaken by local competitors. At the top end, Apple was growing stronger and stronger.

In fact, Samsung Electronics recorded a 20% drop in net profits in 2014, executives voluntarily returned bonuses and there was even talk from economic analysts of the whole South Korean economy being destabilised because of the company’s downturn.

Two years on and the picture is much more positive for Samsung. Their most recent smartphone, the Galaxy S7, received rave reviews and the company's financial footing looks sound again, with profits exceeding company and analyst predictions in 2015.